Other Life
by Wolf of the Light
Summary: Everything appears normal in school until Dawn has a mishap. Then weird things begin happening. But then new students show up during the year, stirring other things up. ShadAmy, Ikarishipping, Contestshipping, Pokeshipping, OldRivalshipping *DISCONTINUED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE*
1. First Day Back

**A/N**: Whoo, new story time! I know I should be getting up that chapter of Family Time about Arisa's birthday, but I've been kinda busy with school. I'm a senior this year! Yay! xD I graduate on the eighteenth of May, so that means only nine more months of school in that hell hole - oops, I mean building of higher education. Pfft, yeah right xD

So anyway, I've really wanted to do a crossover of some sort, but I could never really figure out what two to cross. I've written a lot of Pokemon, so I figured I could start by trying it out with that. Then it occurred to me: I like Pokemon _AND_ Sonic the Hedgehog, so why not attempt it from there? This is what I've got so far, I've even created pictures for Amy, Sonic, _and_ Shadow, all of whom are included in this! Happy happy time for this girl lol No sadfacedpanda for me ^_^ The pictures shall be up on DeviantArt soon if anyone would want to check them out.

Also. There shall be a little of Advanceshipping in the first couple chapters, maybe even a little Sonic and Dawn. It depends on my mood when writing xD

Without further ado, on with the story now!

**Disclaimer: Wolf of the Light does not own any characters in this story, unless they are OCs. Then they're just characters friends let me use for their enjoyment xD**

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><p>The rosters along the wall were crowded with teenage bodies trying to find out which class they were in, whether they shared it with whom they'd hoped, or if their wishes were in vain the entire summer break.<p>

"Hey, I think I see my name over here!"

"Oh, yay, Ruby, we're in the same class again this year!"

"Really? Awesome!"

The commotion was giving Dawn a headache so unpleasant she could see spots in the corner of her vision as she looked around the small courtyard in front of her school. All she did was stand behind all the other students and glanced at each roster, her eyes scanning them until she'd found what she was looking for. Her task complete, she turned on the heel of her new shoe and headed back to where she could spot her small group of friends sitting on a bench that barely fit the three of them, let alone support them. But it was a stone bench, so that meant that they wouldn't go sprawling to the ground any time soon. Hopefully.

"Hey, guys," she said as she laid her bag on the ground at her feet. Flapping a hand at her green pleated skirt she said, "I checked the class lists like you guys asked -"

"At least she didn't say we forced her to look like she was grumbling," one of her brunette friends muttered, making the other giggle under her breath.

Dawn decided to ignore this, though a grimace betrayed her brief annoyance at May. Leaf just decided to zip her lip and keep quiet with a grin that matched the other two's. "May, you're in class 1-B with me. Misty, Leaf, you two are in 2-D."

"Ugh, I hate that we're different ages," May groaned, leaning her head back against the back of the bench.

"What the heck are you talking about? Dawn's the youngest out of all of us," Misty laughed.

The said blunette just sighed and crouched in front of her friends, strategically clasping her hands around her shins. Sometimes she hated being the youngest one in the group, other times it worked out to her advantages. Sometimes.

"Oh, stop picking on the poor girl," Leaf chided her friend. "It's bad enough that she's in the same class as May."

"Hey!"

"You know we love you, May."

The girl just sat there pouting at her friend's remark. They sat talking for a while until the first bell rang, causing them all to follow the other students inside, taking their time to change their shoes. But they took too much time, barely making it to their separate classrooms on different halls. With rushed goodbyes, they separated into groups of two and raced to their new classrooms. Dawn and May barely made it through the door before the warning bell rang, getting strange looks from their classmates and teacher.

"Well," the teacher said. "I hope you girls don't make almost being late a habit."

The two sighed, apologizing simultaneously with a "Sorry, Professor Rowan."

He gave them a nod and an "All right. Take your seats. Seating chart's on the board."

With a couple glances at the board behind their teacher, Dawn and May took their seats across the room from each other. That didn't deter their determination though, waving to each other around the three students beneath them. With them on the ends of each row, they were as far apart as you could get in a classroom that size.

From there the day passed slowly. Math was boring, Ms. Soledad not the best at being interesting at the most key times. Before the summer break, she'd been a little off kilter. But now, seeing the ring on her left hand they knew why. It was only an engagement ring, but they could imagine who it could be who'd proposed to the young woman.

Math went to Literature, from Literature to lunch, to Science, and so on. The first day back was always boring, oh, they knew that well. First year and second year weren't always the best either, if what the four of them ever thought about it were true. Only good things that were in the classrooms? The boys.

In Dawn and May's class, Drew and Paul sat at the front of the room. The purple-haired boy was in the class only because his birthday was later in the year than everybody else's. Drew's was around Dawn's, so double parties were always welcome.

Paul being in the class made Dawn happy nonetheless, so much so that she didn't even really mind when he pretended to forget her name so she'd go away. She could stare at his back the entire day and he wouldn't know unless he was told. It actually wasn't as hard to hide as one might think. Since he sat in one of the three rows that were placed in front of the board, she could make it look like she was looking at what the teacher was writing instead of him. Oh sure, there were times when he'd glance to the back of the room, but Dawn was quick enough to either look up in time or divert her attention to the notes she was supposed to be writing. She was getting good at this.

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><p>At the sound of the final bell, Dawn sat back in her chair and breathed a sigh. First day back and she already had homework weighing down the book bag that sat on the floor by her desk. It was going to take her a couple hours at least to finish it all.<p>

The sound of chairs scraping lightly across the floor alerted her to the other students standing up and gathering their things. She followed suit and stood herself, startled when someone slammed a hand against the desk top.

"So, what were you doing staring at Paul the entire class periods?"

Now, usually she could handle most bad situations well, but this one caught her off guard. Dawn looked up at May warily, visibly tense when she saw a grin on her friend's face. She didn't like explaining things to her friends that sounded as embarrassing as what she'd been doing all class period, so she decided to play dumb. "Um. What?"

May raised an eyebrow at Dawn. "Cut the act, you know what I mean." With a glance behind her, she saw that the classroom was emptying of student bodies. She took this opportunity to grab Dawn's bag and her arm and tote her to the front of the room, away from anybody else who was lingering behind with them. Making sure nobody could hear them, she leaned close to Dawn and whispered, "You might think you can hide it from him, but it's kind of obvious to people who know you as well as I do."

The sound of this made Dawn's face burn with absolute embarrassment. She had only been thinking of not letting Paul see her clearly staring at him. The thought of others noticing her blithely gazing upon the back of his head humiliated her even more, if that was even possible.

"Oh my God," she murmured. "Was it that noticeable?" She turned her blue eyes to her friend's matching ones, eyes that mirrored amusement, yet shone with slight pity for the blunette. What she saw in them gave her the answer she really didn't want to hear. "Oh, no," she moaned, holding her face in her hands in woe.

"What's wrong with her?"

As May wrapped her arms around her saddened friend, she looked behind her to see Drew with his bag slung over his shoulder. He was looking around May at Dawn as she appeared to be crying, at least to him. In an attempt to save the girl's dignity May stepped in Drew's line of view so as to hide the younger girl. "Nothing, Drew. Just go ahead and head home."

Drew smiled smugly at the girl as she stood defensively in front of her friend. "What? Did poor little Dawn get rejected or something?" With a laugh he continued, "I betcha Paul wouldn't let her even stop him to talk."

As the boy continued to laugh, Dawn, the poor girl, began to tear up when his guess was close enough to hurt. She knew he was just being a prick, and even though he was really far from being right, the thought still hurt. The pain was so much that tension began to build somewhere deep inside her. It was all aimed toward Drew and his blunt rudeness, and she could feel it tingling down to her fingertips, itching to have something to do with them. Dawn was never really the one for violence, but she always had her accidental moments.

"Drew, why don't you just shut up and go -" Her sentence was cut off when a school bag went soaring past her ear and striking Drew in the face. Shocked into silence, the girls watched as Drew fell over from the impact of the mysterious speeding bag. The floor beneath their feet seemed to shake as he hit the floor on his backside, his nose now sporting a bright red mark, tears in his eyes from the pain.

Dawn and May both stared at the boy as he rubbed his smarting face, their eyes darting back and forth between him and the bag beside him. A few things had spilled out from it, like a textbook, and a pink pencil case. One or two letters could be slightly seen on the case if one leaned toward it, but a loud shrieking outside the window startled all three of them. In a panic, the girls scrambled to get the heck out of there, May giving enough thought to grab Drew by the collar and pull him to his feet, dragging him behind them. He protested the entire way, swinging his bag back and forth in an effort to get away.

At the front of the school, May and Dawn finally ran out of steam and breath, slowing to a halt by the shoe rack before the doors. They were so close, the both of them wanting to run all the way to their separate houses, but they were too out of breath to move any further from where they collapsed on their knees.

"Da-Dawn," May gasped. She released her grip on Drew's collar finally when she saw he was turning purple, scratching at her hand with both of his. With her hands both free now, she used them to rub her face, pushing her fingers back and through her hair. The boy coughed as he could breathe once again, his lungs filling with sweet, sweet oxygen. He glared daggers at the brunette while he pulled at his stretched out collar, catching the girl shivering slightly. There was no real reason for her to be scared, he couldn't see the reason behind it. Sure, a bag had flown out of nowhere and smacked him in the face, so what? It's not like it was a …

_No_, he chided himself, shaking the thought away as he stood up. _There's no such thing!_ But he had to admit, it _had_ been creepy that a bag had sailed at him from nowhere. With a glance at the girls, he pulled at the tie he rarely wore, straightening it as he grabbed his bag from the floor next to his feet and took a step toward the front door. But when May saw him start to leave, she reached out a hand to grip the tail of his shirt, which had come untucked in their little getaway from the classroom. Not realizing this until she'd already done it, she pulled her hand back when he glanced at her over his shoulder, embarrassed and ashamed of herself. She had a boyfriend already, one she was determined to keep and be happy with, no matter how ditsy or clumsy the boy was a majority of the time. "S-sorry," she mumbled, turning away to hide her red face. With a timid hand, she tugged on Dawn's skirt to get the other girl's attention.

Feeling his gaze on the back of her head, May kept her eyes down when Dawn looked at her, feeling her friend's grip on her skirt. All the brunette could do was incline her head toward the front doors. When Dawn realized what she was implying she nodded in agreement, standing slowly so she wouldn't fall over from the adrenaline. With their bags in hand and both a little shaky, they started for the door, but stopped when Drew called out to them. There was a slight red tinge to his face as he said, "I'll walk you guys home."

Now this was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. Drew may have usually been a womanizer, but he was never a gentleman - or polite for that matter - to May and her friends. Well, that's not entirely true. Most of the time he was nice to Dawn, Leaf, and Misty, but to May he could be a complete twit sometimes. But everyone knows what they say about when a guy is mean to a certain girl.

May stuttered incoherently for a few moments until Dawn saved the poor girl by covering May's mouth with her hand and thanking Drew for the both of them. Typical of him, he just smirked and flicked his hair, going on about something involving how the two should be grateful having the opportunity to be in the presence of greatness. This went on until May, who had gathered her wits enough to think straight again, knocked him upside the head with her bag. The sound of a K.O. was in the air as Dawn laughed openly beside the boy, who had ended up on the ground for the second time that day in such a short time.

As this went on, in a tree a little ways down the sidewalk a branch shivered. Weight unevenly placed along the limb made loose leaves scatter to the ground. But then it grew still, anticipation building as the mysterious person who sat in the tree waited to see if May, Drew, or Dawn had noticed the slight movement from her perch. When everything was clear and the three had turned the corner, the girl breathed a sigh of relief as she stood, her footing sure even on the unstable tree branch. With her being so thin, the branch couldn't have snapped if it was only two inches thick.

Everything now in the clear, and no signs of anybody coming down the street, the girl dropped gracefully to the ground, the heels of her shoes clicking lightly against the pavement. House after house passed as she walked down the road, her destination the building May, Drew, and Dawn had just come from. The school loomed over her as she stood at the front gate, contemplating the metal bars that stood in her way.

"All right, then," she mumbled, taking a couple steps back until the back of her shoe was almost hanging off the sidewalk. Then she ran toward the gate, and just before she would have crashed into the black metal, she pushed off the ground hard. At the top of the gate she landed nimbly on one of the pointed spires, her balance impeccable as she looked around the school grounds. An open window near the western corner of the school caught her eye and interest.

Jumping from the fence top, the girl made her way to said window and peered carefully inside. Nobody was around as far as she could see, so she carefully climbed through the window, landing so softly there was almost no sound. Anyone would have thought that this was her first "break-in," as the administration would put it if she'd been caught, but she'd been doing this for a few years with the occupation she had. _Aha_, she thought when she found what she was looking for. Stooping over she picked up the school bag that lay on the floor with a couple of its contents had scrambled across the tile. She grumbled under her breath as she stuck the pencil case and the textbook she had gotten just that afternoon back into the bag.

"_Just when you think that you're in control, just when you think that you've got a hold, just when you get on a roll, here it goes, here it goes, here it goes again._"

The sound of the ring tone "Here It Goes Again" by OK Go made the girl jump, dropping her bag back on the ground. Her pencil case slid across the floor and under the filing cabinet Professor Rowan kept near the door. Cursing under her breath, she got on her hands and knees as she fished around the pocket in her skirt for her phone. When she got a hand on it she pulled it out, flipping it open and pressing it to her ear as she looked beneath the filing cabinet. "What do you want, Sonic?" she said, not too nicely.

"Well, hello to you too, Amy," was his reply.

Amy rolled her eyes as she continued to try and reach under the cabinet to find her pencil case. She was cursing the day she ever bought the darned thing. "Yeah yeah. So, what's up? Is Shadow stirring things up again?"

Sonic laughed on the other end. "No, nothing like that. Uncle Chuck just wanted me to let you know that dinner would be on soon, and you know how he is with meals. He wants everyone there before anyone can even touch their food."

A short laugh escaped as Amy peered with one eye into the dusty confines of what was under the cabinet. But all she could find were dust bunnies and cousins clinging to the wall and underside of the metal bottom. Grossed out beyond belief she moved away from the cabinet, sighing as she gave up. With a promise to Sonic that she'd be home soon, she scooted over and picked her bag up again, this time closing the latch on it fully. _I guess I'll need to get a new pencil case_, she thought as she stepped out the window she'd come in, pulling it back down so her presence wouldn't be as noticeable. _Hope the rest of the week doesn't end up like this._

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><p><strong>AN**: Okay, short, sweet, and (kinda) to the point xD I had writer's block about halfway through this, where Drew came in asking about Dawn. But, with a notebook and some time in class, I managed to write out a rough draft of the last four and half so pages. Seven pages isn't bad for an introduction like this. And yes, that is what this shall be called. So for now, I shall have to get back to needing to do my homework (and still not ever doing it (I'm a _baaaad_ influence LOL)) and attempting to be a good girl for my mommy (fat chance for that too).

So for now, I bid you _adieu_. _Hasta luego, amigos_ (^w^)/


	2. The Oddest Thing

**A/N**: Second chapter, WHOO! Lol Sometimes I just love it when I'm able to continue a story whenever I have a string of writer's block, which I surely have a lot of these days. I know I haven't updated my stories enough these days, but truthfully, I think my Inspiration Well is drying up :/ I know there are a few readers out there who like what I've written so far, but recently I haven't been up to writing. So, this might be my last update for a while until I get the feeling back. I don't know when that'll be though. For those who like reading my writing, I apologize and thank you for all the waiting you've done, and for those who don't even really care, no skin off my bones.

Okay, my ramblings are over, on to my story of a mixed up cross over.

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><p><em>Scribble, scribble.<em>

Dawn's pencil scratched across the page as she attempted to do long division without a calculator.

"Ninety-one, ninety-two, nintey … Oh my gosh, this is impossible without a calculator! Why didn't I grab it before I left my house?" she grumbled as she rubbed her forehead none too gently with the heel of her hand.

"You wanna use mine?"

With a shake of her head, Dawn refused May's offer, attempting once again to tackle the math problem work sheet Professor Rowan had given them for homework. But there were so many numbers, the circles were making _her _see circles, and the word problems were worded so carefully that she couldn't fully understand what meaning they were trying to get across. Now wishing she'd accepted May's offer, she glanced over her shoulder to see her best friend dangling the graphing calculator in front of her, this silly grin across her face.

"Gimme that," Dawn said as she snatched the device from her cheeky friend's hand. A laugh followed from May as she sat back on her bed and looked at her own homework. They'd been doing homework for an hour, May speeding through the sheet, except for one last problem, but Dawn was struggling so much that her friend had offered assistance, but the answer was always no.

May marked on her paper with a light scratch as she said, "I figured you would need that. I made it through a couple of these problems without even using that thing. I'm just surprised it took you this long to admit that you needed it."

"Oh, shut up, May." Dawn wrote down the answer to the current problem she was working on. They were learning more about the surface areas and volumes of spheres in their math class that week, and Dawn could never remember the formulas that told the two apart. _Let's see now, _she thought as she wrote equations next to the spheres drawn on her sheet. _The approximate radius of a sphere with a surface area of forty times pi is … Um …_

The clatter of Dawn's pencil hitting the floor caused May to look up from the problem she was working through. When she looked over she saw that the younger girl had tossed her writing utencil to the ground in frustration, and May saw that she was holding her head in her heads, sounding like she was cursing her math homework in vexation. With a break here and a snack there, Dawn was able to tackle the sphere problems once more. Hesitation was still there, sure. But at least she was trying to get it finished.

Later, after Dawn's brain finally hit melt down, the two of them decided to pack up their bookbags and go outside for some time in the sun. There wasn't a cloud in the sky as they walked through the front door on to May's front porch. This seemed like a positive thing for the girls, so they sat on the front porch steps, leaned back on their hands, and began to soak up some vitamin D rays. It had only been a few minutes when they heard voices as a small group of people - by the sound of their voices they were all male - began to pass by. The girls kept their eyes closed as they walked, but kept their ears attentive. So when one of the boys called out to them they both looked up to see who it was, only to feel happy, sad, and slightly disappointed at the same time - the happiness belonging to Dawn and the disappointment and sadness being May's.

Strolling past the house was Drew, Paul, Ash, and Gary. The eyes of May and Ash locked, both of them freezing. Giving a small smile in her direction, Ash walked down the short front walk to where the girls were sitting back on the steps. His friends watched as he held out a hand, helping to pull her to her feet. Leaning in close, he said something to her in a small whisper so nobody but May would hear him. A sad expression formed on May's face, but quickly passed as she nodded. She followed him to the side of the house, and calling over her shoulder to Dawn that she'd be back in a few minutes, disappeared around the corner.

They were all left in silence as the boys just stood there and Dawn continued to sit on the porch steps. All of their eyes were pointed in the direction May and Ash had gone, but none of them could really think of anything to say. But Gary, being the brave one, made his way down the walk toward Dawn and took May's place beside the girl. After a few moments and a shared glance between them, Drew and Paul decided to join the two on the steps, a sort of awkward silence surrounding all of them.

"So …" Gary began. Everybody looked at him, making him sort of nervous now that he'd said something. "Anybody know what's going on?" he finished lamely.

Nobody could really answer his question, but Dawn tried her best by saying, "Well … she said something about how her and Ash may have a few compatabilty problems."

The sound of this caused Drew's ears to perk on the subject. "So, what you're saying is," he said, keeping his eyes on his hands, "they might be over there breaking up?"

Dawn leaned forward to rest her elbows on her bare knees, looking at the ruby, cerulean, viridian, and emerald braided friendship bracelet that encircled her wrist. They all wore them - her, May, Leaf, and Misty. "Maybe, maybe not. But I don't know if we should be talking about them like this," she added hurriedly as she began to feel ashamed of herself. With a glance to the side of the house, she bit her lower lip slightly in apprehension, worry written all over her face.

Gary, being the playboy that he was, patted the girl on the hand with a small reassuring smile on his face. "Don't worry. I'm sure they'll be fine, whether they really break up or not."

With tears beginning to form in her eyes, Dawn sniffed as she said, "You think so?"

The brunet glanced out of the corner of his eye down at Paul to gauge his reaction. The boy's face was as emotionless as ever, but there was this spark in his eyes that Gary knew hadn't been there before. Knowing what the cause of this was -and to just irk him even more - Gary smirked, saying, "I'm sure," as he drew her closer, making their foreheads touch in a seemingly-intimate moment.

Now, Gary really didn't have any alterior motive with Dawn, but Paul didn't know that. In fact, the little bit of anger and jealousy that began to boil inside him at the sight of Gary even _touching _Dawn surprised even him. Pulling his gaze away from the two above him, he tried to think of something else, but he couldn't exactly deny the small tug on his heart.

As if they had the best timing in the world - or that they knew that Dawn needed rescue before a fight broke out - Ash and May came round the corner of the house, both of them wearing this sort of subdued expressions on their faces. Seeing the two of them getting closer, Dawn immediately pulled away from Gary, beginning to stand up. But when she saw May smile sadly at her and shake her head just slightly, the girl sat back down on the steps. She wiped at her eyes to keep from crying. Putting a fake one hundred watt smile on, she excused herself as cheerfully as she could force, escaping into the house where she raced up the stairs to May's room. There she let the tears she knew May wouldn't cry run down her face.

_How can you be taking this so well, May?_ Dawn wondered as she sat on the brunette's bed wiping her eyes again. A small sob choked its way up her throat, but she managed to swallow it back down, not without difficulty. With a swift shake of her head, she attempted to quell the rising emotions in her as she tried to calm down. This wasn't something she should be getting so emotional about. It was May's relationship, not hers.

By the time she'd made the mental decision not to interfere, footsteps were heard as someone was coming up the stairs. Dawn quickly wiped away any moisture that was left in her eyes and stood, fixing her shirt and shorts so they were wrinkled anymore. But she realized that she didn't need to really do anything when she saw who it was when they knocked on the door and pushed it open slightly.

"Hey, Dawn," Drew said as he peeked around the door. "You okay?"

Dawn deflated and sat back on the bed. Her hair hung around her face as she leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, and rubbed her face tiredly. She so didn't want to talk to anyone male right now, but she figured she was going to have to until he went away.

"Yeah, Drew." She pushed her hair back to keep it out of her eyes finally, letting out a long breath that blew her bangs up. "I'm okay. I just … I get a little emotional sometimes when it's not my place to."

The boy chuckled as he leaned against the doorframe, his foot playing with the bottom of the door as he glanced up at the blunette. When he saw she'd seen him staring, he looked away again, beginning to stutter something under his breath. It sounded something like "So I guess May's free now …"

"Huh? What'd you say Drew?" Dawn narrowed her eyes at the boy, seemingly feigning innocence.

The boy's face flushed, stammering a "Nothing," and retreated as fast as he had appeared. Dawn sighed and fell back against the bed, resting the back of her hand against her forehead as she stared up at the ceiling. Today had been a weird day. Nothing had really gone wrong, things were just … well, different. As a matter of fact, it had started in their classroom that morning during first period.

Blinking her eyes a couple times, she thought back to earlier that morning after she'd sat down and was throwing a balled up note toward May. Professor Rowan had a no note policy, but they still did it. It was like reverse psychology: you tell someone to not do something, yet they do it anyway. It's like daring them to, you should just never put that rule into effect. He should know from all the years he'd been teaching that that was the one rule nobody exactly followed.

It had been a few months since school had started and everyone was whispering as quietly as they could while the Professor was attempting to teach their science class. They were supposed to be learning about the atomic masses of the elements one through forty eight of the periodic table. But just like the day before, only a few students were taking notes on what Professor Rowan said was going to be on the test. It would be easy to single out who had and hadn't been paying attention the next day.

Dawn was one of the Had Nots that day, her attention too enraptured by the trees that sat outside the window her desk was located near. There was one student between it and her, but she didn't care. Let them think she was staring at them. It was a girl anyway, why would she stare at some girl when she had a crush on Paul that was apparently so obvious that even she didn't realize when she was staring at him. But either way, while she was supposed to be taking notes she noticed something on the ground outside. There was a patch of blue grass near the cluster of trees she'd been watching swaying in the wind. This seemed odd to her. Why was the grass blue in that one area?

Upon closer inspection - meaning leaning sideways in her seat to get a better view, therefore freaking out her neighbor - she saw that it wasn't grass at all: it was somebody's hair. There was a person laying out in the grass while they were all in class on a day as beautiful as this. Thinking how much she wanted to switch places with this person, she never noticed how far she had leaned to her left until she had tumbled from her chair. As she landed on the floor she knocked her head on the linoleum, a flash of pain sparking behind her eyes upon impact. All she could do was just lay there in pain, feeling small bursts of throbbing as her pulse seemed to pound in her skull.

Across the room, when May saw her best friend fall from her chair and land in a heap on the floor, she was out of her chair so fast nobody even had time to react to Dawn's little incident. Falling to her knees beside Dawn's chair May pushed the blunette's hair out of her face, checking to see if she was awake or not. The girl's eyes were open, but they were steadily beginning to flutter close.

"Dawn." May shook her friend's shoulder. "Dawn, stay awake! If you have a concussion you could fall into a coma if you fall asleep. Dawn!"

But the girl's eyes finally shut and she soon fell unconscious. Shaking her shoulders didn't work no matter how much May tried, and you can believe she tried. With tears in her eyes she looked around at the group that had formed around the two. She searched through blurry eyes for Professor Rowan, seeing him trying to push through the cluster of students that had circled them.

"Good gracious, what happened to Miss Hikari?" As Professor Rowan had made it through the group, he immediately knelt next to May and began to check Dawn's condition as best a registered school professor could. He checked her pulse at her wrist, pried open one eyelid to inspect her eyes, doing everything a doctor might do during a check up at a clinic or hospital.

"She's unconscious and her pupils are dialated," Rowan said as he checked her pulse one more time, watching the second hand on his watch while he timed the beat of her blood with two fingers. "That means there's a very high chance that she may have a concussion." Glancing up at the crowd of students he continued, "I need someone to carry Miss Hikari to Nurse Joy's office."

Nobody volunteered themselves to carry the girl. There seemed to be no one who believed they were strong enough to pick her up, even though they didn't realize she wasn't even heavy.

"I'll do it."

All pairs of eyes in the cluster turned to the sound of the voice, every one of them brightening with confusion and surprise when they saw that it belonged to the last person they'd expect to volunteer for anything: Paul. Once he'd gotten everybody's attention he shouldered through the small crowd to Professor Rowan and the girl's sniffling best friend. There wasn't a sound as Paul got on one knee and wrapped an arm around Dawn's torso and slipping one behind her knees. He had no trouble getting back to his feet, and without a word began to walk out of the classroom. If Professor Rowan hadn't called out to him, the boy probably would have made it down the hall before even realizing he didn't even really know just _where_ the nurse's office was.

So to hide his shame - and the slight blush that had started to cross his face - he glanced over his shoulder in the teacher's direction. Rowan suggested he take somebody with him, and before he could even finish, May was to her feet and tugging Paul back toward the door by the sleeve of his uniform regulation shirt. It wasn't like she was going to mess up his outfit: he always had his shirt untucked and unbuttoned with a dark undershirt beneath every day and he never wore the school's provided uniform tie. So there was no real problem with May grabbing his clothes and pulling him out the door as he carried Dawn. Every student and even Professor Rowan stared after the three, as this was such a rare occurance for any day at school.

After a few moments Professor Rowan called attention back to the class and everybody eventually went back to their seats. Rowan went on teaching and his students went on either ignoring him or taking their notes again; all except Drew. He didn't even try to act like he was paying attention, he just kept glancing back at the window Dawn had been so attentively staring out of only minutes ago. He couldn't understand what could have been so enrapturing outside that pane of glass. Just as he was getting the urge to stand up and walk over to peer outside, a wadded up ball of paper bopped him in the back of the head.

He turned around as he rubbed the back of his head, the paper ball in his hand, searching through the seats of students that sat behind him. A flick of a hand in the last row caught his attention. It belonged to a girl with long blond hair and violet eyes, the one who sat beside the window. Her starched white collar didn't move as she flipped it over her shoulder, shooting a wink in his direction. Confused, he just stared at the girl. She pointed at the note Drew held in his hands. Looking down at it, he opened it with a quick glance back at her as he began to read.

_Saw what happened with the blue haired girl._

_What do you say we get together after school and I can show you that's not how all girls are like?_ it said.

All he could do was stare at the curly writing on the page. _Who writes in purple gel pen anymore? _he wondered absently as he reread those two lines, more slowly this time. Even if he read it over and over again, he couldn't even begin to comprehend why she had tossed the note at him in the first place. As he turned around to look at her and ask her why she wanted to show him something he didn't want to see, Professor Rowan took the time to notice that most of his class wasn't even paying attention to his science lecture. So, being the brave teacher he was, called on poor, unprepared Drew to answer a question.

"Mr. Hayden!" he almost yelled, pointing his little stick of a pointer at Drew. The green haired boy jumped back around in his seat, stuffing the note into his open bookbag by his chair, hoping Rowan hadn't noticed it. "What is the order of the elements on the periodic table numbered from twenty to thirty?"

They'd been studying this the entire week, so of course he should have known this. The boy stammered as he attempted to answer. "Um, calcium, titanium, va-vanadium? Well, that's three, so … Uh …"

To save him from utter embarrassment, Professor Rowan finished for him. "Chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, and zinc. We have been going over this for a while now, and if you had been listening at all, you would have known this already. There is to be a test next week over the elements starting from the first element to the thirtieth." He turned back to the board at the front of the room and wrote at the top corner: _Test over periodic table, elements one through thirty, next Thursday._ Looking over his shoulder at the class he said, "I expect you all to know the first thirty elements of the periodic table. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Professor Rowan," echoed every student in the room.

Satisfied, Professor Rowan nodded. "Very good. Now, back to the construction of atoms and their particles."

_Oh boy …_ Drew thought as he pressed a hand to his face, shaking his head.

* * *

><p>While Drew and the rest of the class were sentenced to torture by physics, May half-dragged Paul down the hall as he carried Dawn. She was still unconcious, her head propped against his shoulder as they moved at a brusque pace towards the nurse's office near the front of the school. They passed classrooms filled with teachers and students, all one grade on each hall. Since their hall was near the back of the school, they had to pass through the second- and third-year halls, meaning they walked by Misty's and Leaf's classroom along the way. Both girls saw them as they passed, equal looks of alarm crossing both their faces as they watched Paul carry their best friend past the doorway. If the teacher hadn't been in the middle of a lecture, they would have been out the door in a moment to ask questions. Leaf even started to stand up, but a quick reprimand from the teacher instantly shot her back into her chair, a morose expression setting in as she began to feel helpless.<p>

May was moving at such a fast walk that all she could do was wave at them as they passed by. She hated how worried they looked, but they had to get Dawn to Nurse Joy's office to check up on the condition of her head. So they hurried as fast as they could, almost running by any stray students that were roaming the halls in hopes of getting there sooner rather than later. This earned them some odd looks, as it was unusual to see a male student carrying a female classmate while being pulled along by a girl maybe a foot or so shorter than him. It would have been almost comical - more so if the girls' places had been switched - but it was still unfortunate for the girl being carried.

At last, they reached Nurse Joy's office near the front entrance. May knocked quickly then opened the door with a short call of hello. Nurse Joy was sitting at her desk doing some papers. There were about two or three other students in the room laying on the few futons they had in the infirmary. When she heard them come in, Nurse Joy looked up to see the two nearly panting as they stood in the doorway. Seeing Dawn unconscious in Paul's arms, she quickly stood and walked over.

"What happened?" she asked as she showed Paul which bed to lay Dawn on. It was next to one that was occupied by a student sleeping on their side, the covers pulled over their head, making it impossible to tell whether they were male or female. Right now that didn't matter, as Dawn still hadn't roused from her lifeless state. Nurse Joy looked her over, doing all that Professor Rowan had earlier in the classroom.

"Dawn? Dawn, can you hear me?" Calling to the girl seemed to be getting through to her this time. All the jostling probably helped a little to wake her up some. Her eyelids started to move slightly, then began to open again. Once they were open all the way, she had to shut them back immediately against the bright light of the infirmary fluerescents.

"Ohh, my head," she groaned as May and Nurse Joy helped her to sit up on either side. Wincing as she adjusted her legs in front of her, she asked the small group around her, "Why am I in Nurse Joy's office?"

May couldn't answer her, her sobs were the only sound she could make as she threw her arms around Dawn. The blunette just sat there dumbfounded, looking from her crying friend to Nurse Joy to the stoic Paul just standing there. When his eye met hers she had to look away, working on consoling her sobbing best friend. There was nothing much to do there except keep a hold on May as she slowed her tears.

"Watch out, Miss Maple." Nurse Joy leaned over Dawn as she checked her vitals one more time, looking into her eyes with a small flashlight she produced from the pocket of her long white apron. She flashed this back forth between Dawn's sapphire eyes, asking her questions to keep her occupied while she checked her out. "Do you know your name?" she asked Dawn.

"Dawn Hikari." Dawn's eyes followed Nurse Joy's back and forth, the nurse noting how her pupils contracted accoringly.

"Know what happened to you?" Joy asked around the flashlight as she held it between her teeth so she could use her hands to take Dawn's pulse. Everything seemed to be coming out normal: breathing, her heart rate - although high and a little erratic from adrenaline - seemed almost normal, granted that she probably would have a little headache the rest of the day.

"Um, I was looking outside the window of our classroom. The trees are just blooming, and I was thinking how pretty they were because the petals had been blowing away in the wind, when I saw what I thought was blue grass at the base of the tree's trunk." Dawn followed Nurse Joy's actions as she checked her over for injury. Her words sputtered off as she thought of the blue hair she'd thought of as grass. The color of it almost rivaled her own, it was so shocking how much alike they were.

After a moment of silence Nurse Joy told them that Dawn should be all right, she suggested that she stayed in the nurse's office so she could be easily checked on if something happened. With her check over completed, Nurse Joy proceeded to shoo May and Paul out of her clinic so she could tend to her other patients. May went with a little fight, wanting to stay with her friend, but Nurse Joy wasn't having any of it. The nurse had to physically remove May from her clinic and back into the hall. Paul went more quietly, shooting a small glance over his shoulder at her as May dragged him back to class with her. If she couldn't stay, neither could he.

Back in May's room, Dawn looked out the window the overlooked the front yard. Shadows crossed the room from the tree whose limbs hung before the closed window pane. Out on the lawn she saw May sprawled across the grass, Gary and Drew sitting on either side of her as the late afternoon sun played across their faces, shadows planing their features as they talked. Paul and Ash were nowhere in sight. May's hair was spread above her head, her eyes closed as she basked in the sun's rays. Her hands were clasped over her stomach as she lay there almost asleep.

Dawn watched the three of them carefully for a moment, her eyes drawn to Drew as she watched him play with a lock of May's stray hair, twisting it between his fingers as she lulled on her front lawn. This came across as almost disturbing to Dawn as she turned her eyes away from them. She knew sooner or later that she'd have to face them again, and even though she'd rather it be later, she stood anyway, dragging her feet across the room and through the bedroom doorway. With her head down in defeat she'd only walked maybe a few feet down the hallway before she smacked her forehead into something solid. She bounced back a foot or so, tripping over her own feet and ready to fall until someone grabbed her upper arm, helping her catch her balance. Her feet became steady once more beneath her as she laid a hand on the wall.

"You should probably watch where you're going."

Dawn looked through her bangs, stressing her lower lip when she saw Paul's eyes flash at her. He'd never been the chivalrous one, but he'd help if it was to his advantage. Or someone was in his way.

"Um, hi," she managed.

He nodded a hello, apparently not feeling the mood to talk again. Dawn straightened back from the wall, flushing when she realized Paul's hand still held her arm. But when she looked from his hand to his face, he didn't seem to want to let go. _Okay, weird_, she thought. "Uh," she started, but she shut her mouth as quickly as she had opened it when she heard someone bounding up the stairs.

"Out of the way, coming through!" Paul pulled Dawn closer to the wall as black hair flashed by, then red hair as Misty chased Ash down the hall. "Misty, I told you, I didn't really do anything! She's the one who said it!" Ash almost tripped down the hall as he turned to make the corner that lead to the kitchen stairs. He was lucky there were two sets of stairs at all.

Misty didn't really seem to care much that she'd almost barreled into one of her best friends, she just kept her eyes forward as she continued to chase Ash. "I don't care, Ketchum! You still hurt my friend and I'm going to …" The rest of what she said was drowned out by a scream that could only have come from Ash. He'd probably fallen down the stairs again.

This turn of events left Dawn speechless. She'd seen Misty go crazy before, but nothing like _this_. The red head may have been one who was more for violence when the situation called for it, but those only consisted of mallet whacks to the head, mostly Ash's. Misty must have heard of what happened between May and him earlier. But wait, as Ash had scrambled by trying to escape Misty's wrath hadn't he been screaming about how _May_ had done it? This confused Dawn to no end.

_I'm going crazy, I've _got_ to be_, Dawn thought, rubbing her eyes with the back of her free hand. Speaking of which. She looked up at Paul who was still staring over her head where Ash and Misty had disappeared around the hall corner. His eyes were blank as he looked back down at her, blinking into focus as if he'd forgotten she was there. Then he was really looking at her again, his coal eyes staring at her so hard she had to look away, down at the floor.

"Um," she tried again. "I think I should go downstairs. May probably heard the ruckus up here, and I probably need to go help with damage control too."

Her lame attempt at a joke got a sudden smirk out of the boy. _Oh. Oh, wow._ Dawn was amazed. She didn't think that had happened for a while, but who knew how many times Paul had really ever smiled around them? Probably less than the fingers on Dawn's small hand if anybody actually wanted to try and count.

She gave a small smile of her own, stepping to the side away - regretfully, she had to admit - from Paul so she could make her way to her friends downstairs. She hoped Misty hadn't killed Ash or she was out one friend. There were still a few random screams from below, so she figured he was still alive. For now. "I think I need to go keep Misty from killing Ash." She was inching her feet slowly back every word, hoping he didn't notice how much she wanted to keep her red headed friend from committing murder, even as a crime of passion. She'd much rather have stayed with him instead, but she knew when she was going to be needed.

And appeared that time was now, since Ash gave a blood curdling scream, Dawn's name somewhere in the midst of it. She whipped her head around to look at the stairs behind her only to see Ash clawing at the carpeting just beyond the top step. He was shooting her pleading looks, his hair looking like it had been pulled in clumps in multiple places on his head. Dawn only had a few seconds to stare at him when Misty's head appeared and her hand grabbed the collar of his shirt, dragging him back down the stairs with her. His feet tripped down the stairs behind her, his arms seeming to reach out to Dawn as he was pulled against his will down the stairs toward apparent doom.

"Oh, no," Dawn groaned. Running toward the stairs she called over her shoulder, "Paul, I'm sorry. I need to literally keep Misty from killing Ash. I'll see you later, okay?" She never got to see how he'd answered her since Ash screamed again, sounding like a little girl being attacked by a monster. Jeez, the similarity between the situations was too similar, it was scary to even imagine. "Misty, don't rip his head off! You know you'll regret it later!" Her voice faded down the stairs as she tried to make it in time to save Ash. Hopefully she wasn't too late.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**: Hmmm. I should probably say I wrote this maybe around the beginning of April. The stuff Prof. Rowan was teaching during the science class, I was really learning about all that. The math I'd learned in tenth grade. I actually used old work sheets from a couple years ago to even attempt making sense lol Also, Prof. Rowan teaches both math and science in this fic.

Let me know what you think, reviews are like cookies to me :3


	3. Double Trouble

**A/N**: Two updates in one day, something _must_ be wrong. Haha, no, I've just had this chapter on my computer for a while, and it only needed a little bit more to finish it. So I figured I might as well do it now instead of later when I still have the feeling to write. That's good, right?

Also, this chapter makes up almost half the story word count for the first three chapters because the size of the file for the word document I use now lists them as relatively smaller than my previous one. I didn't realize that till the other day, which is why this one is so long. That's pretty sad ^^;

Either way, I forgot the disclaimer last time, so here it is.

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of this story except the plot line. Kudos to Satoshi Tajiri completely.**

* * *

><p>"Dawn, pass the meat?"<p>

Raising an eyebrow at her friend, Dawn grabbed the plate of sliced ham, sending it May's way. "May, remember, it's not just meat. It's called ham, you know."

May looked at Dawn as if her friend thought she really cared. "Dawn, meat is meat, no matter what shape or form it's in." Upon saying this, she heaped more of said meat onto her plate, empty after her earlier serving of food. "And don't start analyzing what I'm saying, it's bad enough Leaf is starting to do it."

Sticking her tongue out at May, Dawn went back to her own plate of food. She loved Ms. Caroline's cooking, but she didn't really feel all that hungry. The back of her eyes were throbbing slightly as she poked at her ham with her fork, trying to make it seem that she was eating.

"Dawn, dear." She looked at May's mom. "Are you feeling okay? You've hardly touched your food."

The blunette flushed slightly, pushing a hand through her bangs as she stuttered, "Y-yeah, I'm fine. Just a little headache."

"Dawn fell out of her chair in science yesterday," May said around a mouthful of food.

"May, chew your food before you speak," Caroline chided her daughter.

At her mother's order, May swallowed before she spoke again. "She leaned over too far in her chair and cracked her head on the floor. Paul had to carry her to Nurse Joy's office."

Caroline raised a hand to her mouth in worry, looking over the table at the poor girl. She was red with embarrassment as she rested her face in her hands, rubbing her temples with her thumbs. "Poor dear. Are you all right?" Caroline asked.

"Um, yeah. I'm fine," Dawn edged, glaring at May through her fingers. "May I be excused, please?"

"Of course dear."

Dawn all but ran out of the dining room, taking her plate to the kitchen and setting it on the counter, then went up the stairs to May's room. There she collapsed on the bed, pulling off her shirt since she felt really warm for some reason. Tugging her tank top down, she curled on the edge of the bed, her hair hanging over the edge toward the floor. Her headache was beginning to rage at the back of her head now, and she rolled over in hopes that pressing her face to May's cool comforter would help. No such luck.

Soon May joined her. She closed the door softly behind her, raising the light as easily as she could. This helped keep Dawn's headache from flaring at sudden light, but it still hurt nonetheless. She looked up at May as her friend sat down beside her, trying to keep from jostling the bed. "How's the head?"

Dawn groaned as she closed her eyes. "Still hurts. I don't know why, though. Mom called the doctor, and he said that if the headaches got worse that we should come in and get me a CAT scan."

"Well, maybe you should go soon." May sat against the wall, patting her lap for Dawn to lay her head in. "I mean, your head really hurts, right?"

Laying across May's lap, she looked across the room and out the window, watching as the tree outside played in the wind. "Yeah, but mostly during the evening. It doesn't usually start until the afternoon, really." She rubbed her eyes, being careful about how hard she pressed against her eyelids. "Hey, is it okay if I IM Leaf and Misty on your computer? I've been kind of avoiding them so they couldn't really hound me about yesterday."

"Yeah, sure. Go ahead."

Crawling off of May, Dawn managed to make it across the brunette's room to her desktop computer. After waiting for it to boot up, she opened the chat shortcut on the main screen, then signed in and typed the password for the chat room she knew Misty and Leaf enjoyed.

_penguinprincess093 has signed in . . ._

**penguinprincess093: Guys? You there?**

**water0girl20: Dawn! We've been waiting all night for you to get on!**

**penguinprincess093: We?**

**water0girl20: Hold on, I think Leaf fell asleep. Let me call her.**

_green_tea~diet43379 has signed in . . ._

**green_tea~diet43379: I seriously did not mean to sign out like that. I fell asleep, then my computer fell asleep, logging me off. Whole thing's complicated.**

**water0girl20: Leaf, you need to get more sleep, you're even dozing in class again!**

**green_tea~diet43379: I can't help it, I study too long. That and my cat won't shut up so I can sleep.**

**penguinprincess093: Oh, how is Mr. Winkles by the way?**

**green_tea~43379: Still a cat who thinks he's a lion or something.**

**green_tea~43379: By the way, hi Dawn! I forgot when I signed back in.**

**penguinprincess093: It's cool. So, I figured you guys would have questions. What do you want to know?**

**water0girl20: Why was Paul carrying you today? And why was May tugging on his shirt?**

**green_tea~diet43379: Were you okay? You didn't look like you were even conscious.**

**penguinprincess093: Wow, I didn't even know you knew that word.**

**penguinprincess093: But yeah, I passed out in Professor Rowan's science class. My head still kind of hurts from hitting the floor.**

**green_tea~diet43379: YOU HIT THE FLOOR WITH YOUR HEAD?!**

At May's computer, Dawn winced at Leaf's all caps question. She felt completely fine, there was only a small goose egg at the back of her head where it had smacked the linoleum floor. Over her shoulder, she heard May stifle a laugh at Leaf's exclamation. She just rolled her eyes.

**water0girl20: Are you okay?**

**penguinprincess093: Yeah, I should be fine. Nurse Joy said to be careful, but I'll ask Mom to take me to the doctor's when I get home.**

**green_tea~diet43379: Still staying at May's house for the night?**

**penguinprincess093: Yup.**

**water0girl20: Well, just let us know when you go in for that doctor's appointment. We wanna know if you're going to be okay or not!**

**green_tea~diet43379: Agreed!**

**penguinprincess093: Lol**

**penguinprincess093: I will, promise.**

**green_tea~diet43379: Oh rats. Winkles just got his claws on my book bag again.**

**green_tea~diet43379: I'll talk to you to later, I can't afford a new book bag now.**

**green_tea~diet43379: Oh, tell May I said hi!**

_green_tea~diet43379 has logged out . . ._

**penguinprincess093: Has she really been that eccentric?**

**water0girl20: Oh yeah.**

**penguinprincess093: Well then.**

**penguinprincess093: I think I'm gonna lay down, my head is starting to ache some more.**

**water0girl20: All right, but just be careful. Nurse Joy may have given you a clean bill of health, but that doesn't keep us from worrying!**

**penguinprincess093: Haha, I know, Mist, I know. Night.**

**water0girl20: Night girl.**

_penguinprincess093 has logged out . . ._

After closing the chat room, Dawn logged off of May's desktop. She dragged her feet as she crossed the room once more, collapsing on the bed. "Who gets the bed this time?" she said, her voice muffled through the fabric of the comforter. She was so tired she really didn't care who got which, she just wanted to fall unconscious so badly.

"You can have the bed. I'll grab the extra blanket from the hall closet." As May left the room, Dawn crawled to the end of the bed with her pillow, falling asleep before her friend even returned.

She slept without dreams that night, drifting in and out of sleep as she jolted awake multiple times. Once, she couldn't remember where she was, looking around the room that she knew wasn't hers. Then she collected her thoughts enough to know that she was in May's room, and that she had been sleeping on the bed while May lay on the floor.

That one time she stayed awake longer than the others, digging her fingers into the softness of her borrowed pillow. She stretched out on the bed, uncurling herself from the balled up position she had been sleeping in for a while. Her legs seemed to groan in either complaint or ecstasy at the chance to stretch again.

For a while she just lay there, staring up at the ceiling. She waited for sleep to come and take her again, but it seemed to refuse her this time. So to pass the time, she got up, noting how the feeling of wanting to fall over from dizziness was absent, and stepped over May to reach the window. Pushing the frame up to lean outside, she took a deep breath of night air, relishing how it cleared her head of any pain that remained from her earlier headache.

Resting her chin on her arms, she knelt against the wall below the window and watched the stars. They twinkled in the night sky, a cloud here and there spinning across it. Just looking at them as they roamed on their own made her sleepy again, and she began to doze off at the window.

The next thing she knew, May was shaking her awake the next morning. Opening her eyes slowly, she looked over her shoulder at her friend, who, she noted, was already fully dressed. For what she didn't know. "May, what're you doing dressed? Today's Sunday. Right?"

In response, May rolled her eyes as she went to stuff the comforter on the floor back into the hall closet. "I'm going over to Misty's to see if she can help me with some of the math problems Professor Rowan gave us the other day. Maybe even some science."

Yawning, Dawn pulled the window shut, then headed to where she'd dropped her bag by the door before dinner the night before. She rummaged through it, looking for her toothbrush. It was somewhere in her bag, buried at the bottom under her clothes for the day. She was still searching when May walked back in.

"I think I might have to call a classmate about that, I don't want to bother any of our friends with it. Especially if you're already going to ask Misty for help." Dawn stuck her head into her bag, like an ostrich burying its head in the sand, crying, "Where the hell is my darn toothbrush?!"

Looking on the desk beside her, May picked up what she believed was the toothbrush Dawn was searching for. "Is this it?"

Seeing her friend holding her toothbrush, Dawn almost snatched it from her, racing to the bathroom. "Thanks!"

May just stood there in the sudden silence, then sighed as she grabbed her own bag. She slung it over her shoulder as she walked to her door. "Let me know when you head to whoever's house you make it to, all right?" she called down the hall. "And don't forget to let your mom know you left my house."

"Roger!" came the muffled reply.

May rolled her eyes half-heartedly, making sure that the lights were off since the sun was shining brightly through the window. She was pretty sure that Dawn's eyes wouldn't hurt too much from the light, but just to make sure, she dropped the blinds over the window. _Can never be too careful_.

* * *

><p><em>Okay, you can do this. Just hit - the - call - button!<em>

Dawn sat on May's bed, debating in her head about whether the call would be worth the embarrassment or not. In her hand she held her cellphone, Paul's number already typed in. Usually, she would never really resort to calling him for something as simple as help for homework, but she was becoming desperate. She had almost no idea what she was doing during class, and without someone who was smart teaching her, she was doomed to fail. So, with a burst of courage, she mashed the green call button, pressing the phone to her ear before she lost her nerve.

The phone rang, and rang, and rang. She counted the number of times it buzzed in her ear, reaching almost ten before she heard someone say, "_Hello?_" For a moment she just sat there. The voice hadn't been the one she'd been expecting, and she even took the phone from her ear and just looked at it. It was male sure, but not the one she needed at the moment. Then the voice started calling impatiently to her, so she put the phone to her ear again. "I'm sorry, is this the Shinji residence?"

Around the noises she could hear in the background, the person on the other end of the line said, "_Yes, who may I ask is calling? Amiko, don't climb on that!"_

"Umm . . ." She was kind of debating on whether or not to actually answer, but she decided to plow through. "Um, hi. This is Dawn. Dawn Hikari. I, uh -" She cleared her throat. "I'm a classmate of Paul's?"

There was a cry in the background, then some sound bordering on irritated. But at the sound of her name his voice changed. "_Dawn? Hey, it's Reggie._"

"Oh, Reggie! I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were home right now."

"_Yeah, a couple of my cousins are staying with us right now, and I'm having a hard time trying to handle them. I haven't had much sleeping trying to take care of them._"

"Well, if there's anything I could do to help, I'm willing."

"_That would be great!_" Something crashed on Reggie's end. "_Um, is now a good time?_"

Dawn blinked a couple times. "Oh, yeah, sure! I'll head that way in a few minutes, I just have to figure out how to get to your house from May's."

She began to gather her stuff together as she listened to directions to the Shinji household, calling out a goodbye to May's family as she headed out the door. Pulling out the piece of paper she'd borrowed so she could write down the directions, she read through them as she turned down road after road that would lead her to Reggie and his seemingly perilous situation. How bad could it be?

She found out when she knocked on the Shinji's door, only to be greeted by silence. Frowning, she tried again, but the door opened before she even touched the wood. Opening her mouth to say a greeting, she was met with empty space. Looking around the entryway, she called out, "Hello?"

"Hi."

Startled, Dawn looked down. In front of her, no taller than her knees, stood a little boy. He had the purple hair she'd come to know the Shinji brothers for, his dark eyes staring openly up at her. He had a thumb stuck in his mouth, a pacifier that was probably supposed to be in his mouth instead in his other hand.

Kneeling down to one knee, Dawn smiled at the child. "Hi there. Is Reggie home?"

The little boy just kept sucking his thumb as he looked at her. Then he turned on his bare heel and took off, turning a corner and disappearing from her sight. Dawn just sat there confused, blinking after him. She finally stood, pushing the door slightly aside and stepping over the threshold. She kicked off her shoes and dropped her bag beside them in the entryway, closing the door behind her. "Reggie?" she called.

"Ba!"

Dawn looked and saw the little boy standing in the doorway of what she assumed was the kitchen, his thumb still in his mouth. Once she focused on that direction, she could hear the sounds of some sort of disturbance going on. Just because she was curious, and also because she was worried that Reggie might have been in trouble, she padded in the direction of the boy. He just looked at her as he sucked his thumb, then when she was close enough, turned and wobbled into the kitchen. Sticking her head around the corner, Dawn found a disgruntled Reggie trying to feed a girl strapped in a high chair. She seemed to be struggling enough that any food he tried to give her she just threw back. "Um . . ."

At the sound of her voice Reggie looked up. When he saw her, he just seemed to crumple. "Dawn, oh my gosh, _Dawn._" He walked over to her, appearing to want to give her a hug, but since he was covered in food, settled for a strong handshake. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you. I'm usually good with kids, but for some reason, these two don't seem to like me very much."

She immediately felt bad for him. She offered to watch the two so he could go get cleaned up. As he went off toward his room he wished her luck, she was probably going to need it. She just brushed it off and told him to go shower already.

Once Reggie was holed up in his room upstairs, Dawn surveyed the mess the little girl had made. There was baby food on the floor and on her clothes, even a little in her hair. Dawn sighed as she began to look for paper towels or napkins, just something to clean the mess with. She found them on the counter, then proceeded to wipe the girl's face clean. She figured the high chair could be washed, maybe even the floor. But she didn't want infant food all over her socks, so she decided to clean the floor of the messy foodstuff.

"Okay. That's one thing down." Turning to the little girl, she smiled. "Hi, I'm Dawn. What's your name, little one?" Sucking on the spoon in her hand, the girl stared at her, not much unlike her brother, who now sat on the floor beside her chair. "Um, you can speak, right?"

The girl nodded.

"Okay, that's good. Um, can you tell me your name please?"

She stared at Dawn.

_This is going to be harder than I thought._ Worrying her bottom lip, she looked between the two children who were obviously twins, debating on what to do. Before she could really think of anything on her own, she picked up the boy from the floor and settled him on her hip. "We're going to make a quick trip to Reggie's room, 'kay?" He stared just like his sister, but nodded his head. "Okay then," she muttered as she hurried toward and up the stairs as fast as she could without jostling the little boy.

Upstairs, she had to figure out which bedroom was Reggie's and which one was Paul's. Biting the inside of her cheek she decided to try a random door. Knocking first, she listened with her ear pressed against the door. But she was answered with silence, so she decided to move to the next one. This door was probably to the bathroom, since she could hear the running water from the shower coming from the other side. So she decided to try this one. "Reggie?"

"Yes?" came his muffled reply.

Adjusting the toddler on her hip, Dawn leaned more toward the door to get better leverage. "Um, I don't think you've told me the name of the kids, and I can't get an answer from them. Can you tell me what their names are, please?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." The sound of the water cut off. "The little boy is Akito, and the little girl is Amiko. They're fraternal twins if you haven't figured it out yet."

"Yeah, I saw the hair. I also figured they were the same age since they're still so small."

"Yeah, they just turned two a couple weeks ago, so they're still a little resistant when it comes to feedings and things of the like. But if you can get them to cooperate with you, then please, they're all yours for as long as you like."

Dawn laughed, adjusting Akito on her hip again. "Mom would love to have kids around the house again. If they like me, I'll see what she says about play dates at my house."

"That would be great." There was a brief silence. "Um, Dawn, I'm sorry to ask this, but um, could you . . ."

Furrowing her brow for a moment, a blank thought ran through her head. Then she figured out why he'd trailed off, rambling with apologies and scurrying away toward the stairs so he could get out. With a red face, she set Akito back on the floor in the kitchen, figuring he couldn't be too much trouble if she kept him close. Then she set to work trying to feed Amiko for Reggie.

"Here, Amiko. Would you like some tasty, um -" she looked at the label "- mashed squash? Ew, that sounds gross even to me," she laughed.

Dawn's laugh seemed to intrigue Amiko enough to that she reached out with her spoon. Dawn let her dip the end of it into the orange-brown mush, allowing her to collect enough that she'd get a taste once she stuck it in her mouth to eat. But it appeared that wasn't her objective for the moment. Without warning, she flung the baby food off the spoon toward the wall. Dawn gaped in surprise as the toddler giggled at her own antics. "Oh my gosh," she gasped.

Before she could do it again, Dawn took the spoon from the toddler's hand, filled it with food, and tried to feed her properly. But Amiko just gave her a strange look, refusing to open her mouth and eat the food. Dawn rubbed her forehead with the back of her wrist, soon becoming frustrated as the child refused the spoon over and over again. _What will it take for this child to eat?_ Then she got an idea.

Searching around the kitchen, she found a diaper bag filled with baby food. Looking through it, she found the stuff she knew she'd liked as a kid. She set the jar of mashed squash on the counter, turning toward Amiko with the new jar. "Here, Amiko. Try this."

Holding out the spoon to the child, she seemed to take a better liking to it than she did the squash. She even opened her mouth for more once she swallowed the small spoonful Dawn had just given her. Managing to get her to eat something made Dawn smile in slight triumph, happily feeding Amiko. The toddler even began to laugh when Dawn made the spoon out to be an airplane, zooming around Amiko in an attempt to make her smile. It was working out wonderfully.

By the time they'd gone through just half the jar, Amiko began to become drowsy, her eyelids beginning to close. Smiling, Dawn set down the baby food and spoon, releasing the child from her high chair and carrying her into the living room. The slight movement jolted her awake for a moment, but then she dozed back to sleep. Dawn had seen a play pen set up in a corner of the living room, so she figured that would be a nice place for Amiko to take a nap, maybe even Akito if she caught him in time.

Dawn brushed a tuft of violet hair from Amiko's face, covering her in one of the two blankets placed in the play pen. Once she was sure she was settled in, Dawn set her sights on somehow setting Akito down for a nap as well. She started in the kitchen where she'd last left him, but as her eyes scanned the floor she didn't see him. Scratching her head in confusion, she wondered where the two year old could have run off to.

Peeking her head around the kitchen doorway, she looked around the living room, hoping to spot the little boy. But as she walked onto the carpet, she didn't see hide nor hair of the purple-haired boy, even when she looked under the coffee table or behind the entertainment center. Where the heck did he go? Dawn wondered as she lifted up the couch cushions. She wasn't going to leave any place unturned if she wanted to find Akito.

"Akito? Olly olly oxen free!" she called, cupping a hand around her mouth to project her voice further around the room. Why, oh why, did Paul and Reggie have to live a house that was probably larger than hers when there were only two guys in it? She was so busy looking in the closet beneath the stairs that she didn't even notice the front door open. But the next thing she knew, a jacket was being tossed on top of her and the closet door was shut behind her. "Hey!"

She threw the door open again, ignoring the jacket that covered her head, and looked in the direction that she heard footsteps. _That little trickster_, she thought as she shut the closet door as softly as she could. _I knew he'd come around some time soon._ Tiptoeing her way toward the kitchen, she eased her nose around the doorway. Below the sink a cabinet door was open and she could see a bit of purple hair sticking out above it. Taking the chance she knew she probably wouldn't get again anytime soon, she slowly stepped into the kitchen, keeping her footsteps light as she made progress over the linoleum. But as she grew closer, she saw that there was more hair on whoever was crouched on the floor before the cabinet. In fact, it was almost a shade darker than Akito's. _Wait a minute._

Grasping the cabinet door, Dawn looked beyond it. There she saw Paul, rummaging beneath the sink for something, she wasn't sure what. But she wasn't really concerned with this, instead noticing how he had his hair pulled back in a ponytail similar to his brother's. His bangs were still slightly in his face, but it looked like he'd managed to keep some of it out of the way with a couple hairpins. It was something she'd never seen, it was probably how it kept it when he got home. "Paul?"

It seemed she startled him since he jumped slightly, falling backwards off the balls of his feet and onto the floor. He grunted when he landed on the linoleum, looking up to throw a glare Dawn's way. "What are you doing in my house, Troublesome?" he growled.

Her face burned at her unwanted nickname, and, gritting her teeth, she ground out, "My name's Dawn, Paul. Quit with the nickname already, we're in high school, not first grade."

But all he did was snort what sounded like a laugh, or maybe it was another grunt. Then he pushed himself off of the floor, closing the cabinet door in front of him and standing straight. "I asked you a question."

Biting the inside of her cheek, Dawn tried to keep her annoyance in check as she huffed, "Fine. I'm here to help Reggie with your cousins, who I was managing just fine until you came home."

Flicking a glance of what appeared to be slight amusement in her direction, he peered around the kitchen and said, "I don't see them. How is that managing them?" Dawn was about to roll her eyes, but she stopped when he asked, "And why are you wearing my jacket?"

Furrowing her brow instead, Dawn looked down and saw that his jacket was indeed hanging off of her shoulders. Confused, she remembered something being tossed on her in the closet before the door closed. Figuring that Reggie was still upstairs and Paul had just gotten home, the only one it could have been was the younger brother. So, looking up at him through her lashes she said, "You threw it on me before you shut the closet door. Not my fault. I was trying to look for Akito but I didn't see him, and, and -" Her face began to burn as she felt herself rambling. It was always so embarrassing when someone called her on it.

He just looked at her for a moment, amusement dancing behind his eyes. He glanced away before she could see it. Taking a step around her, he grabbed hold of the jacket's collar and carried it with him over his shoulder out of the kitchen. Dawn could hear the sound of the closet door shutting, then a thud. Taking a peek around the kitchen doorway she saw that Paul had plopped across the couch. His jacket was nowhere in sight, so she figured he must have thrown it back into the closet. Looking back toward him she ran a hand through her hair, sighing lightly. "Paul?"

He leaned his head back enough that he could see her. "What?"

"You haven't seen Akito since you've been home, have you?"

In response, he gave a cursory glance around the room, then shrugged as he turned on the TV. She stared at him as he showed no obvious sign of even really caring that one of his cousins was missing. _Honestly_, she thought as she began to search around the room again. She knew the amount of places he could be was limited, but that didn't mean he could find more. "Akito?" she called as she began searching again. She kept her voice down as she looked so she wouldn't disturb Amiko's nap. _This just might take forever._

With every place she could think of searched, Dawn straightened from her bent position, pressing the heel of her hand into her lower back. She was starting to feel sore from bending over and crawling on the floor so much. "Maybe I should check upstairs," she mumbled to herself.

"You say something, Troublesome?" Paul called from the couch.

Shooting a dark look his way, Dawn started climbing up the stairs to the second floor. "Nothing,_ Paul_," she ground out between clenched teeth. She all but stomped up the steps, hoping that Reggie was out of the shower and dressed. She kept her footsteps light as she padded down the hallway, listening for the sounds of Reggie in his room. It was silent in the hall, and she hoped that was a good thing. "Akito?" she called again.

The first door from the stairs was open. Last time she'd been up here it had been shut. _Uh-oh._ Dawn began to lightly chew the inside of her cheek as she felt clammy all over from nervousness. _Please don't be Paul's room, please don't be Paul's room, _please _don't be _- With a slight creak the door open easily with a small push from her finger tips. -_ Paul's room._ "Oh no," she groaned as she surveyed her surroundings. The dark bed spread was pulled to the floor, a couple picture frame were pushed flat on the desktop near the window, and the computer chair was pulled over to sit below a shelf on the wall. On the chair stood Akito, his pacifier still clutched in one tiny fist. With his free hand he was trying to reach up to the shelf, but he was short a few feet. "Akito!"

Her voice suddenly startling to toddler, he began to teeter on his small feet. When he started to fall, a burst of energy shot through Dawn, making her able to shoot across the bedroom floor and grab Akito midair. She landed hard on her shoulder, but she just gritted her teeth and dealt with it. With a small wince in pain she stood, the toddler grasped in her arms. She settled him on her hip as she pulled the chair back to the desk, then righted the picture frames. One caught her eye, so she picked it up with the hand that wasn't holding Akito still. Behind the glass she saw a family photo: a father, a mother, and two sons. The boys were obviously a young Paul and Reggie, and Dawn figured that the man and woman were his parents. Giving a small sigh she set the frame back on the desk where she supposed it went, then set to pulling the comforter back onto the bed. It was tough doing it one-handed, but she managed pretty well.

She would have tried to fix it even more, but she heard footsteps coming from the hallway. In a state of panic she threw the two pillows back against the wall like how they'd been, pulling the comforter over them. Throwing a cursory glance around the room she hurried back into the hallway, closing the door quietly behind her. Akito stayed silent as she rushed toward the stairs, sucking on his thumb again instead of the pacifier. But before she could make it to the top step, Paul's head came into view. She came to a complete stop at the banister and watched with a slightly scared look as he came up the last few steps. He shot her a dark questioning look at her, almost glaring at her as he came around the banister. "What?"

"Um," she stuttered. "Nothing. I found Akito." She turned to the side so he was in view. He kept sucking on his thumb as he looked fearlessly up at his older cousin with clear gray eyes.

Paul gave a grunt, then turned away. "Good. He's a little menace, worse than the girl."

As she was about to say something, something flashed in front of her eyes. She saw that it was Akito's pacifier; it landed against Paul's retreating back with a soft _thump_. Pressing the back of her free hand to her mouth to keep from giggling, Dawn smiled when he whipped around. A dark look crossed his face as he glared at the two of them. Then he spun on his heel, opened his bedroom door, and slammed it shut loudly behind him.

Dawn clicked her teeth lightly together, mumbling, "Boy, what got under his skin?" with a small smile. When she heard him yell, "What happened to my room?!" on the other side of the door, her eyes widened when she saw him begin to open it. "Time to go!" Then she booked it down the stairs as soon as he appeared in the doorway.

Back downstairs, Dawn laid back on the couch. She rubbed at her eyes and looked over at the play pen. After she'd ran downstairs she'd set Akito in the pen with his sister. He'd immediately laid down and stuck his thumb in his mouth since his pacifier was upstairs on the floor. Dawn would have gone to get it, but she was still hesitant to go back up since Paul's outburst. She'd tried to fix his room, what was he so mad about anyway? Was it because he didn't like the kids or the fact that somebody had gone into his room? Maybe it was both - she'd never know. But for the moment she just lay there, relaxing against the cushions.

After a while she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She stayed still, too tired to see which brother it was. Her arm was thrown over her eyes, so when she felt a shadow fall over her she opened her eyes slightly to see who it was. It was Paul, his hair still pulled back in a ponytail. His bangs were falling more loosely now, and he pushed these back as he looked over the back of the couch, probably thinking that Dawn was asleep. He didn't do anything, didn't say anything - just looked at her for a little while. Then he moved away from the couch to go into the kitchen.

Dawn flipped over onto her stomach, burying her face in one of the pillows. She found that her face was burning when she pressed a hand to her cheek. Was there something wrong with her? She didn't feel sick. _Maaaaaan_, she groaned inwardly. If this was what it was going to be like whenever he looked at her, she was going to have a problem.

Running water sounded from the kitchen, and she glanced toward the kitchen doorway as Paul walked back in with a glass of water. When he saw she was awake he seemed surprised for a moment, then wiped it from his face, continuing to walk around the couch to the end where her feet lay. He gave her a look before lifting her feet off the cushions, plopping down with his glass, then letting her feet drop onto his lap like it was nothing. She looked at him over her shoulder as he picked up the remote, turning the TV on again. Dawn hadn't even noticed it had been off.

They were both silent for a while, the only sound coming the television and the soft breathing of the twins in the play pen. Thoughts ran through Dawn's head as she just looked at him as he sipped his water. What the heck was going on here? "Paul?" she said hesitantly.

He glanced at her briefly, his eyes going immediately back to the TV screen. "What, Troublesome?"

A small pang of irritation shot through her, but she pushed it away. "Is something going on?"

This time he looked at her fully, one eyebrow raised. "Why would you say that?"

At a loss for words, she just looked at him. When she felt her face begin to heat up again she looked away, rolling onto her side and pressing her face into the couch pillow again. "No reason."

She heard the slight _clink_ of the glass being set on the coffee table, and when she felt him shift under her feet, she looked around the pillow at him. He was turned to face her, her feet still laying across his lap. "Usually I wouldn't care about something like this, but after yesterday, I'm pretty sure something's up. So spill."

She stared at him for a second, momentarily struck silent. For a while she'd forgotten about what happened yesterday, but it all came back in an emotionally hurtful rush. She sighed, pulling her legs in to sit up. Holding the pillow in her arms, she looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. "I'd forgotten about the whole thing until you said something. Thanks."

He just shrugged. "Not my problem. So what's up?"

Eying him warily, she scooted further down the couch. "You're acting weird today."

"Weird?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Very." She picked lightly at the fabric of the pillow to avoid his eyes. "You're weird either way, though, so I'm actually not entirely sure how much weirder you're being today." _Does that even make sense?_

His brow furrowed this time as he looked at her. "Fair enough."

They fell silent once more, either looking at the TV or nowhere in particular. Dawn picked at her nails, at a loss for words. She glanced over at the twins' play pen, the twins still asleep. Then an idea hit her. "Hey, Paul?"

He glanced at her. "What?"

"Do you not like the twins?"

The grimace that formed on his face told her everything. "What I feel for them would be nothing close to 'liking.' They're horrible children; the girl never listens, and the boy -" He stopped to shake his head. "Don't get me started on the boy."

This made Dawn roll her eyes. "Paul, they're not _that_ bad. They're only two years old, toddlers. They're not horrible, they're just tiny little monsters that need to be watched all the time."

She could see her joke humored him, if the quirk of his mouth was any indication. "You have a point, I guess," he admitted.

Feeling relieved and proud of herself, she nodded. To try and find something to do, she pulled her cell phone from her back pocket to check if she had any messages. There was one, from May. It was from right before she'd had to go on a manhunt for Akito.

_Don't forget about the homework! I know you get sidetracked easily. Love, M_, it said.

Huh. How'd she know Dawn would get sidetracked? The girl knew her too well, Dawn mused mildly. But she knew May was right, she had gotten sidetracked with helping take care of the twins for Reggie. Paul was right there, so why not give it a try?

"Paul?"

He frowned when he looked at her; he obviously wanted to watch TV, but she kept distracting him. "What, Troublesome?" he almost snapped.

Now Dawn frowned at him. "No need to be snappy. I was just wondering if you could help me with my homework."

Silence. Then he started to laugh. Dawn was shocked beyond belief; she could even feel the vibrations from his laugh rocking the couch. This wasn't exactly the reaction she'd been expecting. As she waited for him to calm down, she sat back and looked at him, like, _really_ looked at him. He was a handsome young man when he wasn't frowning, and at the moment, she liked laughing Paul. It was a little off-putting but not completely horrible.

It took a couple minutes for him to quiet down again, and when he did he had to wipe tears from his eyes. "I haven't had a laugh like that in a long time," he chuckled. Taking a deep breath, he settled back against the couch, looking at Dawn again. She raised an eyebrow at him expectantly. "Why would I help you with your homework, Troublesome?"

She hadn't thought about what she'd do if she said no. She worried her lip, glancing around while she tried to think. He seemed to take amusement from her harried expression, but when her eyes lighted on the twins' playpen, an idea struck her. "I'll watch the twins for you," she said lightly.

For a moment he stared at her. She could see that he was weighing the pros and cons of having her over at his house to babysit, so, just to torture him, she shrugged and said, "Or, I could just leave now and let you have to deal with them when they wake up. No biggie." She stood, walking over to the entryway to grab her bag, sitting down to pull on her shoes.

"Wait."

She smiled, slow and triumphant. "Yes?" she called, glancing over her shoulder at him.

He wore an agonized expression, running his hand over his hair in obvious agitation. It looked like he didn't want her help, but the kids were probably driving him further up the wall than they were with Reggie. "Fine," he finally spit. "I'll help you with your homework so long as you keep these kids out of my hair."

Dawn was jumping for joy inside. Who knew watching a couple kids might aid her in her quest for Paul's affection? She stilled. Was that what she was aiming for? She shook the thought away for the time being, kicking her shoe back off and setting her bag by the door again. Walking over to him, she held out her hand, the other on her hip as she grinned from ear to ear. "Deal?"

Begrudgingly, he reached for her hand, enveloping her small one in his larger one. "Deal," he muttered. Then he dropped her hand and turned back to the TV.

"Homework first, buddy." She couldn't stop grinning, even with the dark look he sent her way when she grabbed the TV remote from his hand and clicked the television off. Maybe being assertive was the way she should have approached everything - it was certainly working to her advantage today.

_This is going to be spectacular_, she thought, still grinning, as she dropped her bag on the floor by her feet. _Let's just hope I make it out of here alive, though._

* * *

><p><strong>AN**: All right, it's supposed to be getting interesting after this chapter. I just need to edit the plot line I'd already drawn up, because what I'm going for now is different for what I was going for when I first started. Either way, wish me luck!


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